“Microsoft is expected to recommend that the ‘average’ Longhorn PC feature a dual-core CPU running at 4 to 6GHz; a minimum of 2 gigs of RAM; up to a terabyte of storage; a 1 Gbit, built-in, Ethernet-wired port and an 802.11g wireless link; and a graphics processor that runs three times faster than those on the market today,” Mary Jo Foley reports for Microsoft-Watch.
“That’s according to developer sources close to the company. Microsoft officials would not comment on the Longhorn reference implementation,” Foley reports.
Full article here.
And this is JUST for the OS. What happens then after installing the first third party program?
Anyway, apart the clock, and the *URGH* terabyte storage, it looks essentially a today’s G5.
B-L-O-A-T-E-D
“Dear customer, the installer of Quake 6 requires you to add more RAM. An additional 1 GB bar is highly recommended”
LOL. & who said M$ software isn’t bloated ???
” width=”19″ height=”19″ alt=”wink” style=”border:0;” />
Daaaaammmmmmnnnnnnn. And thats just to boot.
Oh no, not a :; a 1 Gbit, built-in, Ethernet-wired port and an 802.11g wireless link”. How will they ever do that? It sounds really really advanced,
This is an old article. WinHEC is already underway and Longhorn has already proven itself to be a very slow dog during the VP’s demonstration (http://www.reuters.com/newsArticle.jhtml?type=internetNews&storyID=5040169 see page 2 of 2). …but it did (barely) run on a system less than what this article claims is the minimum.
Ary: recommended, not minimum. Big difference. Barely run is not useable.
Simular stuff with games: minimum config and you load it, see the first screen then realize you run at 2~3 frames/sec.
Usually a game is playable when you are way better then the recommended configuration.
…and, what has been presented is not Longhorn in all its bloated glory(?).
So much for a clean rewrite for efficiency. LOL
Well, that should encourage swift adoption!</sarcasm>
It’s hard to imagine a system like that existing for less than $800, even in three years time. It’s even harder to imagine a portable configuration – the growth area in both corporate and SoHo – for less than $1500-2000.
A 200-seat SMB/SME company that is 60/40 (desktop/laptop) will need to spend around $250,000 to re-equip, plus the upgrade costs of Office 20xx ($125), plus the costs of anti-virus software ($25), not to mention the resource costs of installing the damn thing anyway ($250-500).
So now it’s $330,000 at the least, just to buy in to the latest product from the creators of some of the most shabbily designed platform software in the history of the industry.
And then you’ll have to keep it alive everyday, which is something else entirely.
Can’t wait to read Thur-rots latest fawning piece about how Longhorn’s graphics will look so much nicer than OS X. Fscking well should with that spec.
These are not minimum requirements, they are “average” requirements. Hopefully (or not) Intel and nVidia/ATI will be able to keep on track for these specs. Could you imagine delaying the next major revision of Windows until 2006 and having to wait until 2007 to run it properly?
Please, don’t misunderstand my intent. I think Longhorn is the biggest joke ever conceived by a company. I am much more bothered by MDN’s scratching around week-old obscure articles and posting them as “news” than I am of the predictably huge hardware requirements for Longhorn.
Personally, I’ve been trying to find a video (stream) of Allchin’s struggle with Longhorn. That’d be priceless.
ummm… just wondering… exactly how many computers, that meet THESE specs, does M$ have access to in order to develop their bloatware??? WTF are they thinking? Do they really believe that “Joe Sixpack” is going to scurry out and buy a new CPU to run this? Idiots.
I want to see Dull offer this computer for $499! These cheap pee-cee buyers will go into sticker shock when the minimum system is $1,000 or more. This will help Apple look better to new computer buyers.
The minimum 2Gib RAM blows out any chance of it running decently on a Pentium then. Looks like another reason for Windows users to abandon Intel for Athlon64.
On another point, before we all get too smug. Yes, Longhorn is currently very slow, but so was OSX 10.0.
Dave: true, but OS X got faster with every new release. Now, if I have to judge from Micros**t records…
Yeah, I was marvelling at the specs last night over at Slashdot. Longhorn’s not slated until 2006 or 2008, so that’s a few years off, but still $3000 won’t even give you that configuration at Dell, even with Higher Education discounts. You can’t get the processor speed (3.2GHz is the highest in the OptiPlex line), you can get the RAM. You can’t get the hard drive space (240GB or 2x120GB drives built in is the best you can configure, currently). And that doesn’t even include FireWire or the guarentee of GB Ethernet. Some machines have it some don’t.
Though oddly enough, with the exception of processor, those are the specs Iim looking at for my new G5 configuration, if I can afford it, or decide not to upgrade my laptop. But I’m looking at the Dual 2GHz G5 processor, with 2GB memory, and 2x250GB internal hard drives, and a 1TB LaCie FireWire External. It’s my ultimate remote system admin and programming machine.
Though admittedly a G5 laptop would lead me astray, since its hard to give up the current freedom and power that my 15″ G4 laptop provides me.
So the ad we’re all clamoring for should be a side by side of Jobs with OS X and Allchin with Longhorn. Wait a couple months and use Jobs with Tiger. Then mention that Tiger is months away and Longhorn is years away. I doubt it’d be done, but it would sure be delicious!
Good point Dave.
But, Microsoft has a terrible record optomizing code and they generally don’t get anything right untill version three and there is a 2-3 year gap between versions. So if Longhorn manages to get released in 2007, version three won’t be out until 2011-2013. Will PCs even be PCs by then?
I Have to agree w Dave H. 10.0 and 10.1 were just way ahead of the hardware offered, but I still hear about people cramming OS X into pre-G3 systems and calling it usable. Usable means different things to different people.
But in reality 10.0 was really more like a beta and apple wasnt running around in ’99 yelling how great OS X will be. Plus Longhorn will hit the streets in 2006 and wont be upgraded for another 18 months or 2 years, where as Apple had realeased 2 major upgrades and tones of incremental upgrade (not just security patches) in that time.
Just think SJ can run the same graphic for longhorn as he did last year and it would still get a laugh
Allgood, MS must be developing on dual opteron systems and not pentiums.
This is the Longhorn Pro version, I am sure that the “home” version will be sooo much better…
M$ is a progressive company offering cutting edge solutions for everyone…
just think a 1GB network connection on a home PC…
WOW!…
I cant wait…
�
The major difference between Apple and MS is that Apple DELIVERS!
Even if you read our dear friend Thurrott’s “unbiased” review of the Gates-Allchin keynote speech at WinHEC, it is all about what cool stuff they might have 2 years from now. Even then, this is the best they could say “…[Allchin] showed Longhorn playing 6 high-resolution videos simultaneously while playing Quake III Arena in the background [Thurrott fails to mention how poorly it did that]… Allchin also demonstrated an interesting migration tool that can optionally use an upcoming smart USB cable to transfer personal data from an existing PC to a new Longhorn-based PC.” YAAAWWWNNN….. Can you imagine how long it will take someone to transfer files via USB? THIS is the best they can do to help their poor XP users to transfer gigabytes of files to Longhorn? AND you have to wait over 2 YEARS for it!!
Steve Jobs tells you what is available TODAY. He has never failed to give us something new TODAY… often for FREE! And when he does talk about the future, he ALWAYS delivers ahead of schedule with a product that is better than he described earlier.
It totally baffles me how people can be struggling to get their Sasser-crippled computer working again and still tolerate these lame promises from Microsoft?
MS=(BS)^2
Average PC needs dual 4ghz processors to run Longhorn?
Microsoft is about to self-destruct and it couldn’t happen to a nicer bunch of facists.
ROFLMAO
Oh man, I remember a bunch of PC engineers saying that a user will never need a 64-bit chip in regards to the G5. Now, we have an OS forcing a user to possibly get a Dual processor CPU. I bet those same engineers are are getting a woody forgetting that the user will never “need” such power.